Frozen Fire
by CaMangAnime
Summary: Mikan is very upset with the way her so-called-friends have been treating her for the last week. With the help of her brother, Persona, Mikan decides to train to get another, icier, personality. However, the fiery kuro neko isn't happy with her decision. HIATUS
1. Chapter 1

**Hi! Okay, this is the second Gakuen Alice fanfiction that I'm writing. Enjoy!**

**Disclaimer: I don't own Gakuen Alice or anything in it.**

Hotaru!" the shriek pierced through the noisy environment of the classroom as Mikan Sakura ran to hug her stoic friend. Before she could get anywhere near the Ice Queen, also known as Hotaru Imai, there was a deafening BAKA BAKA BAKA BAKA! The loud resounding of the Baka Gun, coupled with a mass of painful bruises, brought her to an abrupt halt.

"Stay away from me baka," the cold inventor said, ignoring the waterfall of tears streaming down Mikan's cheeks. After all, this happened every morning. Mikan sighed. Hotaru always acted like she was a nuisance. And they were supposed to be best friends! Suddenly, she saw Ruka Nogi and Natsume Hyuuga entering the room.

"Ohayo Ruka-pyon, Natsume-kun!" Mikan called cheerfully. Ruka muttered a small "Ohayo" in return, and then chased after Hotaru, yelling at her for selling his pictures again. The blackmailing queen just hopped on her duck scooter and flew away, Ruka riding his animals in pursuit of her. Mikan was accidentally run over by one of the lions. Groaning, she got up and found herself at Natsume's feet.

"Hn, it's strawberries again today," Natsume said.

Mikan gasped. "Pervert!" she yelled. Natsume ignored her and sat down in his seat, pulling out a manga and starting to read it. Mikan sighed for the second time that morning. Suddenly, Jinno-sensei came into the room. Everyone rushed to their seats, not wanting to get in trouble. As class went on, Jinno lectured endlessly about whatever they were learning about. Bored, Mikan stared out the window.

"Sakura! Are you listening? Stand up and do the problem on the board!" Jinno thundered. Everyone swiveled around to look at Mikan, who had a frightened look on her face. Slowly she stood up and walked towards the board. Finally, she reached the blackboard and stood there, staring at the problem. She did not have any idea how to do it. After about ten minutes, Jinno decided to stop her from wasting any more class time.

"Pay attention next time!" he stormed at her. "I have better things to do than re-teach idiots like you how to do this! Now, don't let me catch you ignoring the lesson next time!" Mikan nodded meekly and slowly walked back to her seat. As she sat back down, she heard snickers coming from people around the room, especially from Sumire Shouda and Luna Koizumi.

Mikan sat rigidly, staring intensely at the front of the room for the rest of class. However, she was not able to concentrate on the lesson due to the mocking comments of her classmates. When class finally ended, she collapsed onto the desk and sat there silently, waiting for the next class.

Finally, Narumi pranced into the room. Mikan smiled widely. Narumi-sensei was her favorite teacher.

"Ohayo Narumi-sensei!" Mikan called. Narumi did not reply. Instead, he turned his back. Mikan slumped in her chair, crestfallen. What was wrong today? Was she doing something wrong? Narumi never, ever, ignored her!

After school was over Mikan ran to Tobita Yuu. Yuu was talking to some other kid about something.

"Iinchou!" Mikan called. The student body president looked around. Instead of having a calm expression on his face like usual, Yuu looked extremely stressed today.

"Mikan-chan! I am really busy right now. Please don't bother me for a while," he said, then walked away, still talking to the other kid. Mikan stopped dead in her tracks. She was even a bother to Iinchou! She was used to being called a bother by Natsume, Hotaru and Jinno-sensei, but Yuu had always tolerated her calmly and quietly. Suddenly, she heard a voice behind her.

"I must be a bother to everyone if even Iinchou is telling me to leave him alone." Mikan spun around. Floating above her were Koko, who was reading her mind, and Kitsuneme, who was holding Koko in the air so Mikan could not get at him. "Am I horrible, really? I guess I am worthless. I'm going to kill Koko as soon as he gets down!" Koko said, then laughed. "You'll never catch me Mikan!" he yelled. Then he and Kitsuneme zoomed away.

Mikan felt really stupid. She could not do anything to stop herself from bothering others, could she? Suddenly, she saw Anna and Nonoko, heads together, discussing something in low voices. Mikan brightened. Maybe she could help them with whatever they were talking about. Mikan ran over to them.

"Anna, Nonoko!" She said. "Do you need any help with anything today?" Mikan crossed her fingers, hoping for a favorable response. Instead, Anna and Nonoko sighed, looking very tired and hassled.

"Sorry Mikan, but can you just leave us alone today. We are discussing a very important experiment which we cannot share with anyone," Anna and Nonoko said. Then, they walked away, without even waiting for Mikan's answer.

Mikan stood in the center of the classroom, alone and abandoned by her friends, the people who she thought she could count upon. As she stared at the floor, she did not hear Sumire, Luna and Mochiage whispering together in the back of the classroom. Suddenly, she was lifted into the air. Mikan shrieked to be put down. Watching her struggle, the trio jeered at her as she was flipped upside down, her skirt flying up. After a while, the three got tired of bothering her, and they dropped, her and wandered off.

Mikan fell to the ground, hitting her head hard and acquiring a few bruises. She groaned in pain, and then staggered out of the classroom. She saw Natsume sitting under the Sakura tree and veered away from him. She did not want to be insulted by him yet again. Truly, deep inside of her, she actually really liked him, as more than just a friend, but she would not dare tell him.

Suddenly, she stumbled into someone and fell to the ground again. Rubbing her head again, Mikan looked up. It was Youichi. Mikan cheered inside—finally someone to talk to. Youichi, also rubbing his head, looked up and realized who he had bumped into.

"Ugly," he said monotonously.

Mikan whined. "Come on Youichi, don't be so mean!"

Youichi stood up and released his ghosts on her. Frightened, Mikan fled, sobbing on the inside. She ran deep into the forest, dashing heedlessly past trees and bushes, branches scraping at her face and hands. Finally, she collapsed by a river. Everyone hated her. It was worse than usual. The last few days had been similar to this, but they were not as bad. Mikan let out her tears, crying heavily by the riverside. Suddenly, she heard footsteps. Mikan slowly looked up, then gasped in surprise.

"Nii-chan! I'm so glad you're here!" She said. Persona tweaked his lips in a half smile. His little sister was always yelling about something. Then he frowned, looking at Mikan. She was crying. He had never seen her cry like this before. She seemed genuinely sad.

"Is there something wrong Mikan?" he asked, concerned, but trying not to show it. Mikan sighed, and then proceeded to tell Persona about what had happened to her that day. By the time she finished, Persona was clenching his fists in anger. How could they do that to his little sister? They should pay for it! Then Mikan asked him a question, snapping him out of his thoughts.

"Nii-chan, do you think it's possible to change my personality for a short time? I just want to see how they react to it," she said hesitatingly. Persona thought for a minute. Then he shook his head.

"I don't think so. However, I can train you here everyday so you can learn how to make a second personality," He said thoughtfully. Mikan smiled happily and nodded. She could do that. It would not be too hard. That way, she could keep her happy-go-lucky personality, but still be able to call up a different one when she needed to.

"Arigatou Nii-chan! Can we start now?" Mikan asked excitedly. Persona nodded and started giving her directions.

**Read and Review! (Please don't flame)**

**P.S. To those of you who requested a sequel for Anonymous Poems of Good-Bye, I'm in the process of making it. However, it's taking really long because I write the entire thing on bus rides home from school. Gomene! It's also made differently since there are technically 2 sequels(one from Mikan's POV and one from Natsume, Ruka, and Hotaru's POV). I'll try to get those out soon!**


	2. Chapter 2

**Hi!  
>Thanks to everyone who reviewed, favorited, alerted, etc. this story. Arigatou!<br>****Anyways, Enjoy!**

**Disclaimer: I don't own Gakuen Alice or anything in it.**

Over the course of the next month, Mikan's friends noticed her getting more quiet, cold and withdrawn. However, they did not comment, thinking it was only temporary. She was still bubbly and sparkly, only she was not as loud. At her training session at the end of the month, Persona told Mikan that she did not need any more help and that she was fine now.

Mikan nodded, smiling widely. Persona was the only one she would willingly smile for these days. Then she put her hand over her heart. Using her S.C.E. alice, which she had discovered over the course of the training sessions, she copied her nullification alice stone. A fist-sized orange stone landed in her palm. Going over to her older brother, she inserted it into him.

"Here you go Nii-chan. It is a thank you present. This should make it a lot easier to control your death alice. Well, see you later," Mikan said. Then she walked off. Persona looked fondly after her. Mikan was always thinking about his health. Seriously, sometimes it seemed _she_ was the older sibling. He put his hand over his heart, already feeling the nullification alice taking effect on him.

Mikan walked into class and sat down in her seat. Her classmates looked curiously at her. No Ohayo today? She had always kept it up, until now. As class started, she stared out the window. The flowers on the Sakura tree were closed again today. They had been in full bloom just barely a month ago. Mikan closed her eyes, unaware of the stares coming from her classmates, especially from Hotaru, Ruka and Natsume. Suddenly, she was nearly deafened by an enraged shout.

"SAKURA!" Mikan lazily looked over at the front of the room. Jinno was brandishing his stick and yelling at her. Mikan yawned and ignored him, right after stealing his alice for about five minutes. Jinno blinked, stunned, for a few seconds. Normally Mikan would be trembling with fright. Truthfully, she was his favorite student, but he could not afford to show any leniency. After all, her grades were not that high. He walked over to the board and started writing. After a minute, he called Mikan again. When she refused to respond, he tried shocking her with his lightning alice. Nothing happened. He was sure he was not being nullified, since he could tell when his alice was being nullified. It was just as if he did not have an alice anymore. He called Mikan again. Finally, she responded.

"What do you want Jin-jin?" she said boredly. The entire class gasped. You never called Jinno 'Jin-jin' in front of his face unless you wanted an early death. Jinno swelled like a bullfrog. The nerve of that girl! He would show her who was superior.

"Get up here and solve these problems now!" Jinno yelled, motioning at the problems on the chalkboard. Mikan stood up nonchalantly, walked over to the board and wrote down the answers in three seconds flat. Then she turned and jumped out the window. Everyone rushed to the windows. Mikan leapt down the 28-story building and landed gracefully on her feet. Then she took off for the forest. Her classmates walked back to their seats, goggle-eyed. How did she do that and survive?

Jinno stood there, staring at the board, then at the window. Mikan had solved 15 extremely difficult problems in three seconds, and then jumped out of a window over 280 feet off the ground, and survived! What had happened to his favorite student? Jinno went to his desk. There, on a yellow sticky note, in Mikan's neat handwriting, there were the words "You know your alice is back right? And it burned a bit of your shirt." Jinno looked at his shirt. Sure enough, there was a small patch of burnt material right above his heart. Dazed, Jinno wandered out of the classroom, absently calling a free period over his shoulder. Instantly, the classroom erupted into conversation, Mikan's friends gathering together in one corner.

"What happened to Mikan-chan/Polka/the Baka?" they all asked, in varying tones of voice. They looked at one another. Then everyone stared at Natsume. For a while, there was silence.

Then Natsume, confused, asked, "Why are you all staring at me? I don't know what happened to Polka." Everyone sighed.

"You like her," they accused. "You should know what happened to her!" Natsume's eyes widened just a fractional amount. How did they know that he liked her? Never mind.

"No, I don't like Polka. Besides, I have no idea," he protested. "Anyway, shouldn't you know Imai-san? You are her best friend after all." Hotaru munched on a box of crab brains.

"The baka hasn't talked to me for a while, so I wouldn't know," she said thoughtfully. "I think that this is only going to last for a while. She can't stay like this forever." everyone else agreed. They went back to their seats and sat down just as Narumi twirled into the classroom. Upon not hearing the customary "Ohayo Narumi-sensei!", he looked around the classroom.

"Where's Mikan-chan?" he asked, worried. The class pointed to the window. Narumi rushed to the window. There was no one there. He looked back at the class, and asked again. This time, the class told him what had happened up to when Mikan jumped out the window. At that, Narumi panicked. Mikan jumped out of a 28th story window! He ran over to the window again. This time he noticed a little sticky note attached to the edge of the windowsill. Picking it up, he read it. "Hey sensei. No, I did not die when I jumped out the window. Isn't that obvious? So stop panicking about me, and worry about the brown stain on the back of your new white shirt." Narumi looked at the back of his shirt. Sure enough, there was a dark brown coffee stain on the back of his shirt. Announcing free period to the class, he dashed off to the staffroom, looking for a spare shirt. On his way, he thought about his favorite student. What had happened to her?

The class was in a buzz again. Two teachers that day had declared a free period for them, including Jinno, which was in itself an oddity. Surprisingly, they had both done it after reading a yellow sticky note. Getting an idea, everyone began running around the classroom, looking for those notes. Suddenly, a shout was heard from Kitsuneme. He had found one stuck to the clock. Everyone stared. They could've sworn it wasn't there two minutes ago. Plucking it off the clock, Kitsuneme (and Koko, who was reading his mind) read the note aloud.

"Well, looks like you've finally caught on. You dimwits. Thanks for making me feel like trash! I have a question for you all to answer. Who are your best friends, and what are they to you? Also, to Yome, Hyuuga, Yuu, Imai, Yumenomiya, Ogasawara, Kitsuneme, Nogi, and Hijiri—what was I to you people, a plaything that was indestructible, that you could throw at the wall over and over again? Too bad, that's over. You are not ever allowed to address me as Mikan again, only Sakura-san, you understand? Good! Sakura Mikan out! P.S. Koizumi, Shouda and Mochiage you guys have been reduced to no-stars, just ask any teacher." **(Sorry, I don't know Kitsuneme's or Mochiage's last name.)**

Luna, Mochiage, and Sumire, gasped in horror and ran into the hall to go find a teacher. Minutes later, they came back. However, there was a noticeable difference in their appearance. They were wearing different uniforms, and these had no stars on the collar. Additionally, they had shocked looks on their faces. Everyone gathered around them for the news.

"Sakura-san is a special star now! Moreover, she is in all five of the classes, so she can choose which one to attend. In addition, she can't get in trouble for anything! The high school principal is her uncle, and Persona is her older brother!" the three troublemakers wailed. Everyone gasped. Mikan, related to two of the most powerful people in the school? Mikan, in all five classes? Mikan, a special star? The entire class was stunned into silence. Suddenly, Natsume stood up and stalked out of the classroom, leaving everyone worried.

Seething with anger, Natsume went to the staffroom. Mikan was there, along with all of the teachers and principals. One look at their faces told Natsume that everything was true. He was just about to leave when, suddenly, Persona stopped him.

"Congratulations, Hyuuga. Your missions have been declared unnecessary. You will no longer need to report to me for duties. You may also tell Hijiri to stop worrying that I will assign him a mission," Persona said. Natsume froze. What was going on? He spun around to look at Persona's face. Surprisingly, he was only wearing an earring and a ring as alice control devices. Natsume could see a little of Persona's expression. It was sad and regretful. Natsume wondered what could be making Persona have an expression like that. Then he remembered that Persona was Mikan's older brother. Mikan must have taken over the missions. Natsume tensed, then threw himself at Mikan.

Skidding to a stop right in front of her face, he yelled at the top of his voice, "You baka! Polka, stop this nonsense right now! You are not supposed to take any missions, okay? You have to stay safe Mikan!" Realizing what he said, Natsume jerked back from Mikan, just barely avoiding clapping his hands to his mouth.

Mikan was actually really happy on the inside, but she took care not to let any emotion show as she replied monotonously, "You are a baka yourself _Hyuuga_," Mikan watched with satisfaction as Natsume recoiled at her use of his last name. "I am not 'polka' anymore. You are not permitted to refer to me as anything except Sakura-san, got it? Good. Now leave me alone." Turning to the faculty, Mikan bowed. "Excuse me." Then she jumped out the window. Surprised and concerned, everyone except Natsume and Persona ran to the window. However, Mikan had already disappeared.

Natsume and Persona regarded each other for a minute. Then Natsume growled through gritted teeth, "I will find out what you did to her." Then he stomped out of the room, angry at Persona, Mikan, himself and the world in general. He was especially furious with himself. People could not just change their personality overnight. Mikan must have been altering slightly every day. How could he have not noticed? He should have tried to stop her. Natsume clenched his fists. He could not bear to see the girl he loved like this. Seeking something to calm himself down, Natsume headed towards his Sakura tree.

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	3. Chapter 3

**Hi!  
>Thanks to everyone who reviewed, favorited, alerted, etc. this story. Arigatou!<br>****Anyways, Enjoy!**

**Disclaimer: I don't own Gakuen Alice or anything in it.**

Persona watched the crimson-eyed boy meandering about on the grassy area in front of the school before heading to the Sakura tree. The teacher sighed. It was very obvious that Natsume was helplessly in love with Mikan. In fact, Persona knew that his little sister had been Natsume's comfort for a while now, almost since when she first arrived, 3½ years ago. Now that they were in 8th grade, Persona had often seen Natsume staring at Mikan and knew that Natsume just did his missions to protect Mikan. Of course, the brunette was completely in the dark about Natsume's feelings for her.

Persona sighed. Then he sat down at his desk. The teachers had created an area for him when he requested it. Since he usually had had no contact with anyone, he hadn't had a desk in the staffroom. Now that Mikan had helped him so much, he could stay in the staffroom without worrying about his death alice. Pulling out a sheet of paper, Persona began writing a note to Natsume. Perhaps that would clear things up for the fire-caster.

Mikan was sitting in the highest branch of the Sakura tree, taking a nap, until suddenly the tree shook violently. Mikan almost fell out of the tree, but was able to grab onto a branch. Since she had been able to find an invisibility alice in the high school division, Mikan was completely invisible. As a result, Mikan couldn't make a sound, or else she would be discovered. As she was about to activate the flying alice she had copied from Kitsuneme, Mikan looked down at whatever had caused the shaking. Seeing Natsume there, she was so surprised that she totally forgot about the alice. It was a good thing she was invisible, or else Natsume would be making another smart comment about her panties. Or not, since Mikan now thinks that patterned panties are stupid because of their childishness. After all, she did grow up at least a little because of her training.

While Mikan waited for Natsume to go away, she heard him muttering something. Unfortunately, Mikan was too far up to hear him. Natsume slumped against the tree. Mikan groaned. She was going to be stuck in the tree for quite a while. Suddenly, she remembered her flying alice. Mikan quietly activated the alice, but, instead of flying away, she just floated back upwards to sit on her branch. This way, she could keep an eye on Natsume. She still liked Natsume, even if she had to treat him coldly. It saddened her that she had to be so mean to her friends, but she didn't know if they even cared about her at all, so she had to act like this to see how they reacted.

Natsume punched the tree, trying to let out his anger. That didn't work, so he just sat down against the tree. He couldn't believe how stupid he was. He began muttering angrily at himself about everything in general, especially Mikan. How her eyes sparkled, how she was always so trusting, how she had refused to let him sacrifice himself all those years ago, how she smiled…Natsume growled to himself. Mikan didn't smile anymore. Could he have anything to do with it? Natsume stood up and slammed his hand into the tree again. Suddenly, there was a squeaking noise, and a soft thud sounded from behind the tree. Natsume ran around the tree. Nobody was there! Natsume began heading back to where he was previously sitting. As he turned to give the area one last glance, he tripped on a rock and fell face forwards behind the tree.

Mikan lay on the grass, staring upwards at the sky. When Natsume punched the tree again, she had been taken completely off guard and had fallen out of the tree. Mikan groaned inwardly as she saw Natsume coming around the tree. Luckily, she was still invisible, so he couldn't see her. Mikan could see the look of bewilderment on Natsume's face as he bent over her. Mikan held her breath until Natsume stood up again. He began heading back, and Mikan breathed a silent sigh of relief, until Natsume accidentally tripped and started falling on her. Mikan squeezed her eyes shut and braced for the impact. Suddenly, she felt soft lips on hers. Mikan opened her eyes and panicked. Natsume had obviously landed on her, and the way he had landed had made it so they were kissing! Freaking out, Mikan teleported to the top of the Sakura tree.

Natsume tensed as he began falling. He couldn't stop himself. As he braced himself for the inevitable crash with the hard ground, he landed on something soft. His lips accidentally brushed someone else's lips. Before he could register anything into his mind, the person under him vanished, and he crashed into the ground. Natsume scrambled to his feet just in time to hear the rustle of leaves and see the top of the Sakura tree swaying.

Suddenly an arrogant shout reached his ears, "Hey, you baka! You know, I guess that girl you kissed doesn't like you! As soon as you landed on her, she teleported away! Ha, looks like she has both the invisibility and teleportation alices. You should have seen her face. She was so freaked out!"

Staring, Natsume called upwards, "Hey you! Show yourself, or I'll burn you."

The voice, filled with suppressed laughter, came floating back down, "Try it. I dare you."

Natsume gritted his teeth angrily. Then he shot a fireball at the location where the voice was coming from. To his astonishment, the fireball disappeared as soon as it neared the top of the tree.

Natsume gaped, his mouth hanging open. "The only person who can do that is-"

"Me," The person interrupted him.

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	4. Chapter 4

**Hi!  
>Thanks to everyone who reviewed, favorited, alerted, etc. this story. Arigatou!<br>****Anyways, Enjoy!**

**Disclaimer: I don't own Gakuen Alice or anything in it. (Obviously...)**

Mikan was floating in the air right next to Natsume, laughing silently at his expression. When he had first called up at her when she was still in the tree, she had been a little scared that he had figured out who she was. When she learned that he had no idea as to her identity, she had relaxed and even begun taunting him. When Natsume threatened to burn her, she had almost laughed. While replying, she had floated down next to him. Then, when he shot a fireball at the tree and she had blocked it, he had had such a stunned expression on his face. When Natsume had been about to say her name, she had interrupted him.

Natsume looked wildly around him. Suddenly, a figure appeared in the air beside him. Natsume stared in surprise. It was Mikan! Mikan slowly floated down until she stood on the ground. Natsume leapt at her, or tried to leap at her.

Mikan had actually landed on his shadow as she came down, so Natsume's efforts to move were fruitless. Mikan smiled to herself. Thank goodness she had copied Tsubasa's alice when he visited the day before with Misaki, whose alice Mikan had also copied. Misaki and Tsubasa were now engaged and would be married soon. They were the only ones who had known what Mikan was up to. They had never hurt Mikan, well, except that once when she was in the elementary division and they had refused to work together. Then again, they had made up for it, so that didn't really count. Mikan could smile for them.

Mikan turned her attention back to the struggling flame-caster. Oh! She hadn't stolen his alice yet! Mikan stole Natsume's alice, then formed a ring of fire around the two of them, after first putting up a nullification barrier around the Sakura tree. She wouldn't want that being burnt. Watching Natsume gape at her use of alices that he had never known she had gave Mikan a flood of satisfaction. She combined her fire and ice alices into a fire-ice beam at Natsume, the ice freezing him solid and the fire preventing him from using his own alice to melt the ice. As Natsume stared in disbelief at her actions, Mikan smiled widely at him, pointed at his lips, smirked while pointing at her own, then laughed mockingly and teleported away.

As soon as she disappeared, the ice the fire-ice beam stopped acting against Natsume, and Natsume quickly melted the ice away. He thought about what Mikan had done right before she left. Why had she pointed at his lips, then hers. Natsume touched his lips. They were tingling. So, he had kissed someone, but who was it? Suddenly, Natsume's eyes widened in realization.. He must have accidentally kissed Mikan. Mikan had both the invisibility and teleportation alices. Well, he didn't mind that very much. He had liked her almost since she came into the academy. The real problem was that she now pretty much hated him. Natsume wondered why Mikan had smiled at him. When she smiled, she was so pretty. Her eyes sparkled, and she seemed to be really happy. It almost made him smile too. Lost in thought, Natsume didn't notice the sky darkening until he was startled by Ruka coming to find him.

Ruka sighed in relief as he saw Natsume sitting with his back against the Sakura tree. Strangely, his best friend was holding a manga loosely in his hands, but he wasn't reading it, just staring off into the distance. As Ruka grew closer, he managed to hear Natsume mutter one word, "Mikan."

Ruka looked sympathetically at Natsume. He must have taken Mikan's change hard. It was no secret that Natsume liked Mikan. Ruka could understand what Natsume felt. Ruka had like Mikan as well when she first entered their school. He and Natsume had engaged in a friendly competition for Mikan's affections. In the end, Ruka confessed to Mikan, but she gently rebuffed him. For a dense girl, she had known that his love for her was merely platonic and that he really loved Hotaru.

Now Ruka saw Mikan as a sister and someone to ask for advice in matters of Hotaru. He felt extremely guilty that Mikan had changed so much. Though he was only one of the many that Mikan had referred to by their last name, it hurt him deeply. To make matters worse, he had known that Mikan was changing. To not have done anything about it and still have sometimes ignored her was bothering his conscience. Ruka wondered what everyone else had done to Mikan to make her so unhappy. Mikan was like his sister now, and he hated that his sister was so upset.

Snapping out of his thoughts, Ruka walked up to his best friend. "Natsume, Natsume! It's dark now. What are you doing? Why aren't you reading your manga? Come on, we need to go back to the dorm. Hey, by the way, where's Sakura-san?" Natsume, who seemed to be ignoring all that Ruka was saying, flinched at the last sentence. He silently got up and looked at the animal lover. Ruka could see the anguish in Natsume's eyes. Ruka nodded in understanding, and the two boys set off back to their rooms in a companionable silence.

Natsume parted from Ruka at the stairs. As he entered his room, Natsume noticed a piece of paper on his desk. He picked it up and read it silently to himself. "Natsume, I know that you are concerned about Mikan. Though Mikan probably won't want me to tell you this, there is a reason that she is doing this. It is because you and the rest of her friends all treat her poorly. The thing is, she asked me to help her train to be emotionless. Since that is impossible, I taught her how to _act_ emotionless. The real Mikan is still inside her. She can stop acting like this whenever she wants, but that is up to her whether she wants to stop. On the inside, Mikan is still the bright, bubbly girl that you fell in love with. Good luck. From Persona."

Natsume blinked in surprise. This was all just an act? He could just barely believe the truth of Persona's note. True, everyone had been treating Mikan like trash lately. It was just habit. After all, she had just bounced right back up again. Could she really actually be hurting inside? Natsume groaned to himself. He would have to find Mikan and set her back to normal soon.

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	5. Chapter 5

**Hey! Sorry I've been gone for so long. And I'll probably be gone for another long time. My parents banned me from fanfiction and some sort of restriction onmy computer. I had to sneak on to post this. I'll try to work on the stories as much as I can.**

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**Disclaimer: Is this really necessary?**

The next day, Mikan woke up later than usual. She sleepily looked at her clock, which was flashing the time—8:15. Suddenly, she sat bolt upright in bed. School started in 15 minutes, and she did _not _want to be late. Mikan shot to her closet and grabbed her uniform. Instead of tying her tie neatly, she let it hang loose. Mikan decided not to tuck her shirt in like usual. After putting her hair up in her usual two ponytails, she looked at the mirror. Something seemed wrong…Mikan stared at her reflection for a minute then snapped her fingers. Untying the ribbons in her hair, Mikan set them down on her dresser and pulled a pair of blue legwarmers and a blue belt out of her closet. She slipped the legwarmers on and buckled the belt loosely around her waist under her jacket. There, everything was perfect now.

Mikan grabbed her bag, opened the window, and scrambled onto the windowsill outside. She climbed up the wall to the roof and ran along the peak then jumped off at the end and landed in a tree. Mikan swiftly jumped across the tree branches towards the main school building. She jumped in through the classroom window and sat down gracefully in her seat just as the bell rang.

Narumi-sensei popped his head into the room, yelled "Free period!" and popped back out again. Mikan plugged her ear buds into her IPod and, laying her head down on the desk, fell asleep. Instantly, her former group of friends (Hotaru, Anna, Nonoko, Koko, Kitsuneme, Yuu, Natsume, Ruka, and Youichi) gathered around her. They knew better than to wake Mikan up, so they just stared at her. Natsume watched Mikan sleep and reached out to brush her hair out of her face. Everyone else could barely keep from yelling in triumph, but they restrained themselves to a whisper.

"We told you that you liked her. Don't deny it!" Natsume flinched and jumped away from the sleeping girl.

"N-no, I don't!" he stammered. "Sh-she just had a piece of hair in her face. If it had been left there, she probably would have killed us all, thinking that we had put it there!" Natsume blustered on while everyone else ignored him, smiling slyly. After a while, though, their smiles faded, and they regarded Mikan with concern. What had caused her to become like this? Natsume fished Persona's note out of his pants pocket and showed to everyone else.

All of them were dumbfounded. Mikan was actually affected by their behavior towards her! They never guessed that. To them, Mikan was the overly optimistic and dense girl who, despite all of her efforts, was no smarter than a tree trunk. Or so they thought. Suddenly, Mikan woke up. Her former friends shot back to their seats in a futile attempt to avoid anything she might do to them.

Mikan actually _had_ been asleep but had woken up right after Natsume passed the note around. On the inside, she wasn't actually upset with her older brother at all for alerting Natsume and the others to her reasons. However, she was absolutely furious when she realized what her friends had seen her as.

Lifting all of them up into the air, she temporarily nullified their alices and sent them to float outside the window. Then she jumped out the window. As soon as she was on the ground, she stopped using her levitation alice, causing everyone to shoot towards the ground at an alarming speed. As they were about to hit the ground, Mikan jerked them to a stop again. She then formed an unbreakable glass ball around them and dropped the group on the ground.

Towering above them, Mikan spat angrily at them, "You thought I was dense? You thought I was dumber than a _tree_? Some friends you were! Well guess what! My IQ is higher than all of yours combined! I don't even have to go to this stupid school! And don't make me say this more than once! I AM NOT DENSE! Get it through your thick minds! I knew everything that you thought about me! I have had the mind-reading alice as part of my alices ever since I was a little kid. It was my secret alice, which not even the teachers knew, and…Oh crap, I just told you something you weren't supposed to know!" Frantically waving her hands in an intricate pattern in front of their faces, Mikan activated her memory alice and erased everyone else's memory of what she just said, sending them unconscious. Still furious at them, she levitated the ball to the tip of a nearby hill. Then she teleported to her room, narrowly escaping a group of students coming around the corner of the school building..

Inside the ball, Natsume was the first to be able to sit up. Looking around, he was puzzled as to how they had gotten there. Realizing their situation, he shook everyone else out of the stupor induced by Mikan's memory trick. They all sat up, groaning with exhaustion. As soon as they noticed that they were encaged inside a ball, the nine middle schoolers began pounding frantically on the sides of the ball. Obviously, the ball didn't break. Instead, the ball suddenly tilted sideways and rolled down the hill it had been conveniently placed on! Shrieking with panic, the group bounced around the ball, crashing into each other as the ball rolled swiftly down the hill towards the forest.

Watching the group out of her special star room window, Mikan giggled gleefully to herself. Usually, she wouldn't be so excited about taking revenge and things like that, but this was a special case. Watching this was just too hilarious. As Mikan watched, the ball went crashing into a tree and shot off at an angle, whirling around and around until the occupants' heads were spinning with dizziness. With a flick of her fingers, Mikan directed the ball towards the lake. Using a pair of binoculars, Mikan watched the expressions on her friends' faces change to horror as the ball sped towards the lake. As they splashed into the lake, Mikan kept the ball afloat. Suddenly, a chuckle sounded behind her.

"Nice job Mikan," Persona said, laughing quietly at Mikan's revenge. He had been standing on a tree near where Mikan had been shouting at her friends. Amused by the spectacle, he had unobtrusively followed the progress of the ball as it rolled down the hill and towards the lake. When it had stopped above the lake, he had gone to Mikan's room with the help of a teleportation alice she had given him earlier. Mikan nodded and then turned around to look at Persona. The ball could float without her help anyways. Persona's presence was more important.

"Mikan, you have a mission," Persona said, holding out a pure white mask with a painted purple rose twined around the borders.

**Thanks for reading! See you next time!**


	6. HIATUS ALERT

Hey everyone.

I guess you were expecting this to be a new chapter?

I'm really sorry, but I have to go on an official semi-permanent hiatus.

I lost my USB drive on a place to Hawaii, and I've yet to hear back from the Lost and Found officials. Unfortunately, all of my stories were on there, almost finished and ready to be published.

I'll do my best to re-write what I had, but it might take a while, like a _really _long time.

Sorry Again.

~CaMangAnime


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